This blog is dedicated to musicians, fans and fanatics that brave the boundaries of FOUR. Its for Talkin', Playin', Writin', Debatin' and Pontificatin' about music that is outside of the restrictions of common meters. From toe tappin' to head bangin', we are genre biased free, Prog, Metal, Rock, Speed Comp, Electronic, Jazz, World, Classical and all flavors in between ...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

What Jeff Beck playing odd meters? Just when I though he would never do a thing to win my heart, or get off my nerves, Gijs Verhijke, an astute odd meter listener, helped to change my disdain. He alerted me to a Beck oddmeterism 'Blast From the East' that he actually did not write (Tony Hymas did), but grooves it. Come to find out, he has some other ones too that go out of four, but that is for a different discussion.

This is what Gijs had to say:

"Spotted this one on his live DVD (live @ Ronnie Scott). If you ask me it's one bar of 7/8, two bars of 8/8 and then one bar of 7/8 again. Or you could argue that it's 15/8 alternatively but it clearly alternates between 7/8 and 8/8 if you ask me."

Well thank you Mr. Beck for chosing to playing this number, Tony Hymas for writing it, Jennifer Batten for cool effects and technique and the taken for granted rhythm section for making this groove appear to be easy to play.

But more importantly, thank you Gijs for spotting this one for us, I am grooving on it and I do believe you are totally correct on your 7/8 8/8 hypothosis.